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Here’s what you need to know today

• Australia’s stock market recorded its 3rd positive day in a row. The ASX 200 index is now actually up from when Trump first announced his Liberation Day tariffs on 2 April. The index is up 0.8% since 2 April.
  
  

• It’s not just the ASX 200 having a good run, Bitcoin continues to climb higher. The cryptocurrency crossed US$95,000 over the weekend and is currently sitting at US$94,470, up 26% in the past 3 weeks.
  
  

• Officially, we’re just days out from the Australian federal election. But with more than 2 million Australians already having voted, we’re already there. The Coalition is focusing its efforts on Melbourne while Labor is making a late push in Brisbane, including targeting Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson. (AFR)
  
  

• It’s not just the Australian election that is underway. Canadians went to the polls on Monday with votes being counted Tuesday Australian time. While Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party looked like early favourites, the governing Liberal Party saw a jump in the polls as sitting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood aside for former Central Bank governor Mark Carney. (ABC News)
  
  

• James Hardie management have assured investors that it will not ask to be exempted from ASX listing rules after it shifts its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange. This is an attempt to quell a shareholder revolt that has seen accusations that management are “stealing” the company from shareholders after acquiring American outdoor decking company Azek and announcing plans to move its primary listing to New York. (AFR)
  
  

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has celebrated the “full defeat” of Ukrainian forces in Kursk that entered and occupied the Russian territory last year. Ukrainian officials have denied the claim. (Al Jazeera)
  
  

• Tensions between India and Pakistan continue to rise in the Kashmir region. On 22 April, gunmen killed 26 people in the disputed region. India accused Pakistan of being involved in the attack and rhetoric has been escalating ever since between the two nuclear powers. Yesterday, India shared footage of its navy testing missiles at sea to show readiness to carry out a “long-range precision offensive strike”. (SBS News)
  
  

• In a sign of the effect of the US-China trade war, Apple has announced it plans to make all iPhones it sells in America in India rather than China. It hopes to have fully transitioned its supply chain for US-iPhones by the end of 2026. (Financial Times)

What the…?

China billed it as a world first: a human v robot half-marathon. 21 humanoid robots made by some of China’s top robotics companies were pitted against human runners over 21km.

It didn’t go as planned. Only 4 of the 21 robotic runners finished the race within the allotted 4 hours. One fell at the starting line, another fell and broke into pieces and a third lost its head during the race.

While it is easy to laugh at those that didn’t finish, it is important to think about those that did. The winning robot ran the half-marathon in two hours and 40 minutes. Well behind the fastest humans but a sign of how quickly robotic technology is improving. (AFR)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Navigating major life events

Community Question: How can I navigate through major life events, such as buying a home, getting married or starting a business?

We put this questions to Ben Wauchope, financial adviser and Managing Director of Wealth Health Co.

With anything in life, preparation is often the key determiner between success and failure. Navigating through these major life events should start many years before the event i.e. increasing your earning capacity through education (trade certificates, university or other non-traditional types of education) or ensuring your compatible with your partner in all areas before tying the knot (i.e. you’ve rode both the highs and lows over an extended period of time).

Your finances will impact the success of many of your life events as well – so ensuring you’re financially prepared is key. I’m a big believer in the phrase ‘you should be either earning or learning’ and if you’re not, then it’s probably time for a change. This both applies to formal education and whilst in employment. You need to have the ability to earn money if you’re going to accomplish buying a home, getting married and/or starting a business – as all these things cost money (a lot of money!). So this starts early in your career by first learning, and then earning. This ability to earn money will generally take many years to get you to the point where accomplishing these things is a reality (it doesn’t just happen overnight or without hard work!).

Once you are prepared from an earnings capacity perspective, then you need to prepare by the way of savings perspective. This will involve ensuring you are spending less than you earn (think cash flow plan) and putting money away to fund these big ticket items – i.e. a deposit on a house, the funds to pay for the wedding or a having a cash buffer to cover your living expenses in the start-up phase of your business when you may not be generating a lot of revenue.

Your ability to save money will really come down to a lot of trade-off’s and will require you to prioritise.

It’s currently August in Australia, and most of our social media feeds are filled with your followers travelling around Europe and having the time of their lives. These trips were obviously filled with preparation as well – money saved, flights booked, itineraries mapped out. Most of you will also have those friends/family/acquittances who have had great experiences travelling the globe throughout their 20’s.

Travel is one of those great trade-off’s when it comes to achieving some of life’s key milestones – as they will generally be negatively correlated. Spending time and money on Travel will allow for less time on money focusing on those other key life events.

In summary, navigating through major life events requires preparation – prepare yourself to be able to earn and save money over a prolonged period of time so that these dreams become a reality. Along this journey you will also need to determine what are your priorities – is it travelling the globe throughout your 20’s at the expense of purchasing a house, is it spending money now on things you enjoy or putting that money away so that you can invest in your own business?

Interested in speaking to a financial adviser? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers.

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